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Saturday, July 14, 2007

The basketball-playing Morris twins are again on the market . . . at least to some degree.

Yesterday, speaking for himself and his brother, 6-10 Markieff, 6-9 Marcus said the twins have reopened their recruiting.

They signed last fall with Memphis before leading Prep Charter to a second consecutive PIAA Class AA state championship. Each twin was a first-team Daily News All-City selection.

The twins still intend to spend a year in a prep school. Although their original thought was to remain close to home for that, now their likely destination is IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Marcus said the recruiting process has been reopened "because we just want to make sure Memphis would really be the best fit."

"We signed there after making only that one official visit. We never compared it to anything. So now, we'll make some others, and if we do wind up sticking with Memphis, we'll know it'll be the best place."

The twins, still only 17, will head for prep school as academic nonqualifers, but are said to be close to reaching the necessary test score. When they announced in November, a National Letter of Intent spokeswoman said that if they enter prep school as nonqualifiers, the letters are null and void.

Marcus said contact with Memphis coach John Calipari and assistant Derek Kellogg was made.

"They're a little surprised," he said. "I told them they don't have much to worry about. We still like Memphis a lot."

La Salle originally was a strong contender for the twins' services.

"Well, since we're opening things up, I'm sure we'll look at them again," Marcus said. "More than likely, though, I'd say we'll still be going to college out of the area."

Generally, throughout the Morrises' lives, the lead twin off the court has been Marcus. Ditto this time.

"I was telling 'Kieff that it would make sense for us to reopen our recruiting, just to be sure," Marcus said. "He was a little shaky with that for a while. Then he did realize, and we made this decision together."